By NCN News Staff

There will be six corporate worship services at the Church of the Nazarene's 28th General Assembly and Conventions, including — for the first time since 1980 — two Sunday morning Communion services.

The first worship service will take place on Thursday evening, June 20, 2013. Additional services will occur each day until Monday, June 24. The entire General Assembly and Conventions event will run June 19 to 28 in Indianapolis at the Indiana Convention Center.

The General Assembly Arrangements Office announced this week that there will be two Sunday morning services (8:30 and 11) due to size limitations in the convention center. Services will be held in a space created by combining convention halls H, I, J, and K. This combined space can seat about 20,000 individuals.

In 2005, the last time General Assembly took place in Indianapolis, more than 25,000 people attended the Sunday morning service in the RCA Dome. The dome has since been torn down and replaced with additional space for the Indiana Convention Center. The expansion, completed in January 2011, added 254,000 square feet of exhibit space, 63,000 square feet of meeting rooms, and 103,000 square feet of pre-function and registration space.

Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis' new $720 million, state-of-the-art, retractable roof stadium, was not a financially-feasible option for General Assembly 2013.

Due to demolition and construction projects at the RCA Dome and Indiana Convention Center in 2009, the 27th General Assembly and Conventions were held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Approximately 22,000 people packed into the convention center for the Sunday morning Communion service in Orlando.

Event planners project 2013 attendance to be similar to 2005.

While 2013 will mark the first time since 1980 in Kansas City, Missouri, that General Assembly included two Sunday morning services, another tradition remains constant — the denomination's general superintendents will serve as featured speakers for the event.

The full corporate worship service schedule for the 28th General Assembly and Conventions is as follows:

Thursday, June 20, 7 p.m. - Stan A. Toler
Friday, June 21, 7 p.m. - David W. Graves
Saturday, June 22, 7 p.m. - Jerry D. Porter
Sunday, June 23, 8:30 and 11 a.m. - Jesse C. Middendorf
Sunday, June 23, 4:30 p.m. - J. K. Warrick

The business portion of General Assembly will begin on Monday, June 24, with a report on the state of the church by Eugenio R. Duarte.

General Assembly is the "supreme doctrine-formulating, lawmaking, and elective authority of the Church of the Nazarene" (Manual, 131). The General Assembly and auxiliary conventions (Nazarene Missions International, Nazarene Youth International, and Sunday School and Discipleship Ministries International) convene every four years, bringing together Nazarenes from around the globe.

In addition to worship services and auxiliary conventions, the 2013 gathering will include legislative meetings (election of general church leadership and consideration of and voting on resolutions), exhibits, workshops, service projects, and fellowship. While voting is restricted to officially-elected delegates, participation in the events of the General Assembly and Conventions is open to everyone.

For more information on the event, see www.nazarene.org/ga.